Chapter 4: War At Sea I

Date: August 31st, 2023

Location: Former Washington Island, South Pacific Ocean

Our team was the scout force for this mission.

Ticonderoga had instructed me to take two ships along with me to scout the enemy base out and look for potential weaknesses in the formations and radio the information back to the fleet. To this end, I had recruited California to my side as he was highly experienced with such matters, and New Jersey, as a sacrificial pawn should we be spotted. The sky was filled with black clouds that threatened rain. California, New Jersey, and I were hiding behind an outcropping of rocks as we scanned the shores of the enemy base.

Fortress Alpha was incredibly imposing to look at. The first terrifying aspect of the gigafortress was the sheer number of Executor-class Sirens patrolling around the base. Typically the Sirens fielded many mass-produced vessels equipped with Siren technology and augmented them with several humanoid Executors to attack Azur Lane bases and fortifications. However, in the case of Fortress Alpha, it was purely Executor-class vessels on patrols. And not just Explorers or Trackers, but mainly Oceanas and Peacebreakers. My radars were even picking up several Strategist Sirens, though there were too many pings for me to isolate exactly how many there were. Sonar returns were negligible however so I punched in a message to the fleet that there was minimal underwater activity in the region while charting the courses of the larger fleets of Executors.

The second horrifying aspect of the gigafortress that would make anyone shit their pants was the unbelievable size of it. It was built on the remains of the former Washington Island that used to be the home of a small village prior to the Siren invasion. Towering Siren Steel walls stretched into the skies and even taller spires scraped the bottoms of the thunderclouds. In my mind, I imagined zombies, a human-made horror concept that was popular among the younger generations of humans. If zombies ever built a gigantic castle of dark steel, this is what it would look like, very necrotic and imposing. I half expected some dark aquatic lich king to be standing up on one of the ramparts, with a booming voice commanding the laser artillery from within the fortress, looking down on all of us.

"Argh my fucking radars aren't working because of all of this jamming, I am going to blast them away." New Jersey suddenly spouted, standing up and locking her turrets on the enemy forces."

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?!" I jumped on top of her and crushed her into the water before she could peek out over the rocks. Several searchlights illuminated the rocks we were hiding behind and I could see New Jersey's eyes go wide, casting a long shadow, before finally fading away. I got off of her and immediately she began hissing and spitting water everywhere.

"You bitch I will-"

"WILL YOU KEEP YOUR VOICE DOWN?!" I angrily whispered to her. If a Siren sonic sensor overheard her loud voice, we were totally screwed. I was so pissed I considered throwing her out over the rocks to get shot to pieces while myself and California ran for it. She gave me a dirty glare but kept her silence. It seemed that the searchlights scared her enough that she understood to sit tight for a few minutes while California and I used the counterintelligence equipment we were armed with to map out the enemy forces and identify apparent enemy static defenses and important infrastructure. Our primary mission objective was to destroy the fortress, but if such a task could not be completed, the next best goal was to disable it and prevent the Sirens from being active in the region for some time.

What was actually less than ten minutes felt like an eternity. I could see out of the corner of my eyes the tension that New Jersey was under. Unlike California and I, who had been trained specifically for stealth operations and had the equipment to pull it off, she hadn't even born witness to live combat yet, never mind overwhelming opposition like this. It started to sink into her that if she even so much as lifted a pinky finger over the rocks more firepower would be concentrated on our position than an entire naval base could muster. Finally, the buzzer beeped in my ear as California linked me to his data stream. We had what we came for.

The real problem was getting out. If we turned our backs to the enemy and attempted to run, most likely we would be caught out by the searchlights. They hadn't been active before, which was how we were able to slip in here, but at some point, the Sirens must have detected our radar waves and put themselves on alert.

"Virginia," California started. "Let's have New Jersey fire on the enemy searchlights. They seem to be mounted on the walls of the fortress and her guns should be able to penetrate the armored sections. If she can take out the searchlights before the enemy notices we are here, we can use smoke grenades and retreat." He held out a couple of smoke bombs, one for me and one for New Jersey. He was carrying more than I was as I had asked him to packmule for me. He was going to put those bulging muscles to use damnit.

"Sounds like a plan, New Jersey, can you hit it?" She looked up at me, this time with begrudging respect, and nodded. She moved into position and California and I positioned ourselves on her flanks to run. Then she reversed out from behind the rocks.

I had heard some battleship cannons fire in my lifetime, but the sound of those 406mm/50 Mark 7 Triple Cannons left a horrid ringing in my ears. The explosive shockwave was enough to stagger me and I had to regain my balance. Almost instantly, searchlight after searchlight was trained upon the three of us, light blinding my eyes. I pulled down my polarizing targeting goggles in order to see, but it wasn't necessary as moments later eruptions within the wall caused cracks to form that collapsed part of the platform that the lights were on. Her shells clearly were able to penetrate the armored walls. Some of the falling debris crushed a few unlucky Executors when it hit the water, but the more important thing was that the searchlights turned off. It wasn't a perfect hit, but it was clearly enough to cut the power to the lights, and as an added bonus, the Siren Jamming dimmed slightly.

"California, now!" His hand was moving before mine and two seconds later a pop followed by a thick plume of smoke billowed out. My hand grabbed for New Jersey and pulled her aside right as an enemy battleship shell went whizzing by her head to detonate in the water behind us. I pulled her along behind me, twisting the cap on my smoke grenade so it would piss out smoke slowly, blazing a trail of cover behind us as we ran. California grabbed her other side and we hastily retreated from the area as bombardment came from the enemy forces. The Siren laser systems couldn't fire on us without a direct line of sight, however, the enemy could spew plenty of shells in the general direction we were retreating. I felt like an Olympic skier swerving to port and starboard, only instead of dodging trees and snow mounds, it was pillars of water. And if such a pillar of water happened to explode right in front of me, I was dead. Once New Jersey got her bearings I let her go, and she was able to keep up and even overtake me. The farther away we got, the fewer shells we had to dodge.

Eventually, we cleared out and headed back in the direction of the main fleet. I saw New Jersey slow down as California and I caught up. I looked at him.

"Cali, your hurt!" Dark red blood was oozing down his left arm, dripping into the water, but he seemed unaffected by it.

"Siren bastard nicked me. It's not too deep, and thankfully not all that painful." He reached over with his right arm and peeled the ripped clothing away to reveal a nasty-looking jagged gash. Any Exceed battleship wouldn't have even been scratched due to their heavy armor, but Core Units were lacking in armor plates. Even shrapnel was dangerously lethal to our extremities. I pulled a bandage wrap out from his kit and proceeded to wrap his arm as we surfed across the waves. I finished it off with a tie, not too tight, but tight enough that it would staunch the bleeding.

"You should be all set."

"Thanks, buddy." He flexed his arm and a slight wince of pain crossed his face. But goddamnit even wounded he could still make his muscle veins pop when he flexed. Why is it that bastard needed no steroids in order to look like a world-class bodybuilder?

"It's not a problem," I stated irritatedly. He didn't pick up on it thankfully, and we mulled over the information we had uncovered as we were sailing. After a little over an hour, we returned to the fleet. Ticonderoga was waiting for us.

"I see you got hurt." Ticonderoga immediately commented as soon as he saw California.

"It's nothing boss. Don't worry about it."

"What did you find out?" I resent the more accurate data to him and quickly pulled out a pen and paper from my kit. Unfortunately, the paper was soggy from the water plumes, but I was able to scratch a basic picture onto it to show him. As I did this, he called over flagships of the respective forces at this battle. Queen Elizabeth of the Royal Navy, Essex of the Eagle Union, August Von Parseval of the Iron Blood, and Shokaku of the Sakura Empire. They also brought their notable attendants along. Tiger and Bristol were also privy to the meeting.

"The enemy fortress has increased its defenses since the last time we were here. There are significantly more Executor-class Sirens here than the report we obtained told us. The enemy has searchlights and radars as well as jamming equipment mounted on the armored wall sections." I stated as I circled key positions.

"What about defensive emplacements?" Tiger asked. California stepped up.

"The Sirens have appropriated several large shoals and placed defensive bunkers on them equipped with laser emitters and anti-aircraft suites. I scanned the walls and found a number of retrofitted Peace Breaker energy rifles bolted into the crenellations on the tops of the walls. I also detected larger laser emitters mounted on platforms that jut out from the wall sections. Obviously, if we get hit by one of those heavy lasers, it's going to hurt a hell of a lot."

"We will need to take out the bunkers before we can move on the fortress, but destroying them while taking fire from the fortress and the patrolling Sirens is going to be a rough ordeal. I assume the enemy has hydroacoustics and sonars for detecting submarines?" Essex asked, looking at me. I smiled.

"Yes, they have a lot, but they did not appear to have many submarines defending the base." The Core came prepared for such an eventuality. We had Anti-Submarine Warfare equipment and could cover our forces if necessary.

"Yes, indeed we did." Ticonderoga smiled and muttered into his wrist communicator while the four Exceed flagships looked at him in askance. He simply looked up at them and winked.

Suddenly the water between August Von Parseval and Shokaku bubbled and a Core Submarine emerged from the depths. The two girls jumped backward in shock and the Iron Dragon behind August Von Parseval reared its head back and hissed, fire coming out of its nostrils.

"Memphis, we got a job for you," Ticonderoga said.

The Core did not just consist of cruiser class vessels. Like the Exceed, though we have fewer numbers compared to them, we also have several classifications of vessels under our command. The younger teenage boys of the destroyer classes were often responsible for running commissions back and forth from the mainland, ferrying supplies and data for the homeland to analyze. However, one of our biggest intelligence-gathering teams was the submarine division, and they are the only class of vessel we of the Core own that outmatch its Exceed counterpart in direct combat capabilities. Unfortunately, there were very very few of them, and most of them were distributed around the Eagle Union's various bases for the interests in maximizing homeland security. Even at the combined forces base at Pearl Harbor, we only had access to two submarines, Memphis, a Los Angeles class submarine, and Drum, a Sturgeon class submarine. Both of them were nuclear-powered and could stay underwater for much longer than an Exceed submarine, while also having excellent offensive capabilities.

But more importantly, they were very stealthy.

USS Memphis wasn't much to look at, his long blonde hair was tied back in a ponytail and his stubbly blond beard was his only standout facial feature. His brown eyes scanned over the paper I held out to him. At least he was wearing a black speedo. I could tell however that his muscular body, which was on display for everyone to see, was embarrassing to the Exceed. I could see Shokaku and Essex visibly blushing. The Unhulde showed no expression, but the Queen of the Royal Navy was attempting to stutter out words through her reddened cheeks and failing.

"Do you think you can sabotage these fortifications?" Ticonderoga indicated the circles I drew around the fortifications and Memphis looked up at him with a smug look. He reached into his rigging and a hatch popped open, and he pulled out a squishy grey substance that looked suspiciously like hard playdoh.

"I brought plenty of C4. Damn fools on the General Board couldn't get us all the Harpoons or Tomahawks for this mission, so I filled my empty missile bays with the stuff." His rough voice begot his smile. "I can slip in there undetected and blow those bastards sky-high. I only have four out of my twelve Tomahawks that I am supposed to have, but I suppose ill use them if I must. I should have enough plastic explosives on me to do some serious damage. Do you think if I stuck one to a Siren's back that it would turn it into confetti?"

Yes, Memphis was slightly twisted. Swimming with the sharks must have done something to him.

"Where is Drum currently?"

Memphis looked at me. "I sent him out to clear the path ahead. You guys literally sailed right over him."

"You mean he was under us as we were retreating?" How I didn't pick him up on my sonar baffled me, although in my defense we were busy dodging artillery fire.

"Yes. That is part of the reason why there are very few submarines in the area. He laid out several decoys to draw them away so we could have some fun. Even now he is silently picking them off I am sure. Drum was loaded down with enough stealth and counterintelligence equipment to keep him hidden for quite a while. I will be truly surprised if the Sirens ever find him."

The Exceed were barely able to understand our conversation, it was evident in their faces. This was the first real operation where Exceed and Core units were working together. To them, things were simple. Shoot things with guns and torpedoes, don't get shot at in return. With the exception of the Royal Maids and the Royal Navy Core, none of them understood stealth or counterintelligence or anything of the sort.

Tiger chimed in. "I'll send Antrim and Glamorgan with Memphis as support. They will stay far enough away to not interfere with the Op, but close enough that if Memphis gets stuck in there they can get him out. In the meantime, however." He turned to face New Jersey. "We are going to need some covering fire from battleships while Memphis slips in. Can you Eagle Union pull it off?"

For once since this whole thing started, New Jersey smirked. "Obviously, my shells can bring down those walls after all, I am sure they can bust up the Sirens too."

"Gather the rest of the fleet then. Memphis, your going ahead of us as planned." Ticonderoga said. Tiger called over Glamorgan and Antrim and gave them the instructions, soon they were off. That was when Ticonderoga pulled me and California aside.

"I'm gonna need you two to escort New Jersey."

God...fucking...damnit...

"Why?" I said with a questioning expression.

"The brass told me before we left the base that she is carrying something that could turn the tide of this battle. I trust that the other battleships who have more experience than her can hold their own in a fight, however, as you both are painfully aware of by now I am sure, shes completely green in combat. We can't afford to have her get killed out here."

You couldn't have told me and California that BEFORE sending us to scout?!

"So you want us to escort our resident jack-in-the-box? No problem." California was looking forward to it more than I was apparently. He flexed again. Piss off with your good looks asshole.

"Fine, we will keep the Draggin Dragon company." I turned around and rechecked my arsenal quickly before gliding up alongside New Jersey with California riding behind me.

"Let's make the Sirens open up the box buddy!" I heard him call out behind me. I raised my hand with a thumbs up, not looking back at him.

Together, the fleet moved out swiftly.

The open battlefield was a very chaotic place to be for a Core unit.

Since we were not primarily designed for open water warfare like the Exceed were, the flagships ordered the Core to outflank the enemy. The Eagle Union Core had chosen the eastern flank while the Royal Navy Core took the west. The Core was divided into 3 main units. The Belknap class cruisers Jouett, Horne, and Belknap himself formed one division while Ticonderoga was leading California class cruiser South Carolina and my three brothers Arkansas, Mississippi, and Texas of the Virginia class. I, California, and New Jersey made up the final unit.

From our position on the flanks, we were providing supporting fire. The fleet had moved into position to attack the bunkers on the outcropping islands without exposing themselves to the direct fire of Fortress Alpha, with the destroyers risking themselves to lay smokescreens to cover the approach. Ticonderoga and his crew were keeping the Sirens jammed and preventing them from using their lasers or particle cannons effectively against the Exceed. Belknap and the others were busy trying to keep the skies clear of enemy forces as the Sirens had many aircraft buzzing around in the sky locked into harsh combat with Exceed aircraft carrier squadrons.

I looked past the bunkers and used the long-range optics kits. I could see at least 3 Strategist class Sirens who were launching aircraft behind their Peace Breaker formations. They must be the ones controlling the larger portion of aircraft in the skies. Although the Exceed outnumbered them in the total number of aircraft carriers, the Sirens had the advantage of ground-based anti-aircraft weapons and fortress launched fighters. The battle was effectively deadlocked for air superiority, and until one side managed to overtake the skies, either side sending out torpedo bombers or dive bombers was a terrible idea.

Thus the others were doing as best as they could. Belknap class cruisers were ordinarily equipped with 40 RIM-67 Standard surface-to-air missiles. Unfortunately due to the supply shortages, we distributed the remaining missiles as best we could, but each cruiser was only carrying 26 missiles instead of their fully-loaded compliments. Thus they were forced to hold their fire until they could guarantee accurate lock-on with their guidance systems so as not to waste ammunition. Supported by Ticonderoga's group, which was handling ECM warfare in the area, this wasn't so bad, but they would need to monitor the battle carefully.

A very large explosion disrupted my thoughts and in the distance, I could see one of the fortifications the Sirens had been defending erupting into a fireball. It looked like Memphis had slipped in successfully.

"Virginia, 16 short-klicks off my bow, Tracker group numbering 6 in total, confirmed on the radars. It seems that our cover is blown, we will have to fight directly." California's sudden comlink yanked my focus away from the Exceed's area of operation.

"Rodger. Setting up for an attack." Trackers were the Executor Siren equivalent of Light Cruisers. They packed low-powered particle cannons and torpedoes, generally not a threat to larger vessels, but for destroyers and weakly armored vessels like us, they could do some serious damage. I checked my missile bays, feeling the energy of the warship soul within me. Radar confirmed locked.

"New Jersey, can you provide supporting fire?" I splintered away from her and banked hard to the left, narrowly dodging the energy lance that came sizzling by me. I couldn't hear her answer due to my ears now ringing from the blastwave of her cannons unleashing a salvo. Unfortunately, she rushed the shot and her shells splashed uselessly. I raised my right arm and loosed a valuable Harpoon missile at the offending cruiser. Clearly not expecting the attack and unable to lock onto it due to ECM, the Tracker exploded into a messy pile of Siren goop.

"More enemies to our starboard, watch out, there are a couple of Peace Breakers in there!" My head swiveled on a pivot and I could see them, two Peace Breakers, escorted by four Explorers, the destroyer class of the Executor Sirens. I could feel their intense gaze upon me and my foot twisted sideways as I began to move, causing me to crash into the water. I cursed, but had it not been for that accidental slip, I would have become fried bacon as a full salvo of Siegebreaker Particle Cannons burned the air where I once was standing.

Water splashed over my body as I scrambled up and I saw a flash of blue and white.

"New Jersey, what the hell are you-?!" I bit my own tongue however as she seemed to glide gracefully between Peace Breaker salvos until she was directly on top of them. One of the destroyers was minced into slurry by her onslaught of secondary firepower, but I could see her in close-quarters combat dueling with the Peace Breaker closest to her. She ducked under a left hook from the Peace Breaker and nailed a high kick directly into the enemy's jaw, causing it to stagger backward, giving her enough time to vaporize it with her main battery. She was in the sights of the other Peace Breaker, however, but focused on the enemy in front of it, it failed to notice that California had locked a Harpoon missile onto it. The missile flew past New Jersey inches from her head and impacted against the Peace Breaker's starboard rigging, billowing outwards in a vaporous fireball. New Jersey recovered her stance and finished it off.

I couldn't be shown up by these two. I had my own weight to pull. I refocused onto the Tracker group and noticed there was a Tracker missing, though judging by the burning heap behind the formation, I figured California had cooked it off with a missile. I myself had my own guns, two single Mark 45 127mm/54 caliber Dual-Purpose Cannons, which sung to the tune of 15 rounds-per-minute with High-Explosive ordinance. The Olympic skier returned, only this time I wasn't running away, but closing the distance with the enemy so I could land more accurate shots. I danced between the particle beams using my jamming equipment to throw off their targeting with false positives and slid down on my knees between two of the trackers while hammering them with my guns until they exploded, rolling back up onto my feet. Only two remained and it was a standoff between us. Something about them felt off as we gazed at each other, disgustingly unhuman. Their blackened armor plates seemed to be grafted into their skin, glowing willowy parts of their yellow-toned rigging floating serenely by their heads, looking at me with feline eyes of hatred. Even with their comrades dead, no words were spoken, and the grin of malice that appeared on their faces never seemed to break.

A short skirmish resulted in their deaths. I blew the smoke away from the barrels of my guns like something out of a western film as their hole-ridden corpses collapsed behind me, and while I did get nicked by shrapnel here and there, the adrenaline was properly pouring through my veins now, the pain dull and distant.

That is when I heard the cry of pain.

"VIRGINIA, HELP!" I turned to see California, caught strangled in the arms of a Peace Breaker, its sneering single-eyed gaze looking over his shoulder while aiming one of its Siegebreaker Particle Cannons at his head.

A shriek escaped my lips and I could feel my body shaking, sweat beading down my skin. I couldn't shoot the Peace Breaker because I could very well hit California with my shot. Now, he was in her arms, unable to wriggle his way out of her iron grasp as she pulled him in two different directions, straining his body with her cyborg-like superhuman strength. Even though I could hear his fingernails scraping at her armored gauntlets like metal on a chalkboard, my vision tunneled.

Is this what happened to USS Sterett?

I can feel my breath hitch in my throat. I looked around for New Jersey, but I saw her tangling with another Peace Breaker totally surrounded by destroyers.

I pleaded silently for a miracle.

Suddenly, a flash erupted horizontally across my vision as a missile impacted the Peace Breaker holding California and tore a hole straight through its side. The blast was enough to vaporize it. California was thrown clear of the blast, blackened and bruised to land heavily in the water.

My eyes refocused and it took me a second to contemplate what just happened. I turned to see a periscope sticking out of the water a couple of short-klicks away. Slowly it retracted under the water, and in my ear, I could hear the unmistakable voice of USS Drum.

"Never existed."